Why did ocean productivity decline abruptly 4.6 million years ago?

Jan 18, 2022

IODP Expedition 356 drilled sedimentary archives on the northwestern Australian shelf. Photo: J. Henderiks

Between 9 and 4.6 million years ago, the oceans were very rich in nutrients; the period is also known as the "biogenic bloom". A Swedish-German research team, including David de Vleeschouwer during his time at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, now presents new evidence on when and why this period ended abruptly. Changes in the shape of the Earth's orbit around the Sun may have played a role in this dramatic change. The team has published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

"Our results show that ocean productivity and climate change were closely linked in the past - a finding that is still relevant today," says David De Vleeschouwer. The team published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Original publication:

Karatsolis et al. (2022) Abrupt conclusion of the late Miocene-early Pliocene biogenic bloom at 4.6-4.4 Ma, Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27784-6

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Boris-Theofanis Karatsolis and his colleagues studied drill cores from seafloor sediments recovered by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), including IODP Expedition 356, in which sediment archives were drilled on the northwestern Australian shelf. Photo: J. Henderiks